Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has sold 1 million copies in just 3 days (not including Game Pass)

[u/scytherman96]

https://x.com/expedition33/status/1916409440011444331

[u/lolman5555]

There isn't really a "traditional approach" for FF at all, each entry is wildly different from the other especially when ATB got introduced, hell you can go further back to FF2 even

[u/VannesGreave → u/lolman5555]

Play 1-9 and they play almost exactly the same. The difference is the introduction of ATB with 4, and later games changing how you level or gain spells. They otherwise play almost exactly identically.

[u/lolman5555 → u/VannesGreave]

I don't need a rando reddittor to tell me to play games I already have.

[u/Dude_McGuy0 → u/lolman5555]

There was a traditional gameplay style for FF. Every FF game 1 through 9 had command based combat system (menu selection combat) and a world map with vehicle/airship exploration. 

From FF1 on the NES to FF9 on the PS1 the combat and exploration gameplay loop was the same. The only aspect of gameplay that changed from game to game was the leveling progression system. Which basically became a tradition of its own. To expect a different leveling system in each new game to keep things fresh. (The only one that repeated was FF3 and FF 5 job system). 

Then FFX took out the airship/world map. But most veteran fans accepted that change because the story was very strong. 

Then FFXII and FFXIII both removed the command based combat system with a hybrid system. And the airship/world map still gone. A lot of FF veteran fans do not like these games because of the combat systems because of that. 

Then FFXV just ripped off the band-aid and became an open world action RPG. And this is when we started to see those veteran fans get really vocal. Because mainline FF no longer played anything like it used to back when they became fans of the franchise. 

Plenty of other good JRPGs have come out in the last decade or so. But very few have scratched that "classic FF" itch with command based combat + world map exploration + high quality 3D graphics. The game feels like something SE would have made in the 2010's if they decided FFXIII wasn't quite the right approach and went back to the original style. 

[u/lolman5555 → u/Dude_McGuy0]

Obviously the main core they share is command/menu based combat (wow, much like other turn based rpgs), this is pointless to bring up. What sets them apart are the systems within them such as materia, ff5's job system, ff13's introduction of stagger, ff8's junction system etc. And the way ATB is utilised later on in the series. All of this greatly changes the experience between each game and saying they play exactly the same is both a lie and misleading. There's a reason people have wildly different takes on different FF games, or why someone would drop playing ff2 because they hate the proficiency system. Also ff13 is still menu driven combat, it didn't remove it.

"Traditional" FF is just a lie ""veteran"" fans tried bringing up in reaction to ff16. They have similarities in the loop but not so much it's exactly the same. A small vocal subset of whiny babies online is not an accurate representation of all FF fans, I have played them all and one of my fave things about this series is knowing the next game is gonna be quite different

[u/Dude_McGuy0 → u/lolman5555]

It's not a lie at all. You've misrepresented what I've said.

From FF1 on the NES to FF9 on the PS1 the combat and exploration gameplay loop was the same. The only aspect of gameplay that changed from game to game was the leveling progression system

And you interpret that as: "saying they play exactly the same is both a lie and misleading."

I didn't say anything like that. I said there were 2 specific aspects of the gameplay that were the same across the first 9 games, up until 1 was changed with FFX (exploration) and then the other was changed with FFXII (turn based command battles).

It's an important distinction to make that goes beyond "They always changed things from game to game." Of course they changed things, but what aspects did they change and what aspects did they keep the same between titles?

People can clearly look back and see that those 2 core aspects I mentioned were retained through the first 9 games up until FFX and then FFXII.

And I'm not even saying it's a the majority of FF fans who feel this way. I love FFX and really enjoy FFXII despite those changes. But I don't get the same "feeling" of classic FF when I play those games. It's different. Still enjoyable, but not the same.

And I'm not saying FF should change their current formula and start making FF in the style that it used to be. It seems like that ship sailed long ago. But people still remember how it used to play, and they will celebrate when another game steps up to fill that void.

[u/lolman5555 → u/Dude_McGuy0]

I'm not misrepresenting what you said though, those systems I mentioned are inherently tied to the combat which changes a lot how you to interact with the combat in those games be it passively or in more direct ways. I also don't agree the exploration is exactly the same especially comparing the snes titles to the ps1 titles outside of staple traversal methods.

And also well that's the thing, I don't agree there is a "current formula" either, ff15 and 16 are very differently designed games to each other and don't really play the same at all. I imagine ff17 will also be very different with how it plays since CBU3 is already confirmed to not be doing it